Untitled
by Machinator
Summary: In a week, Rude will be a Turk. In a week, Reno will be another slum-dweller with a dead friend.


"S'pose it's gonna be goodbye this time next week, eh?"

There was something intensely off-putting about the Shin-Ra building. Big, looming, cold. Being under the plate was nothing to be coveted by any means, but Reno wondered how people on the upper plate dealt with _that_ as their centrepiece.

"I hear you gotta cut all your ties when you join the Turks. Poof. Good as dead. _Actually_ dead so far as anyone who knows-... _knew_ you is concerned." He never took his eyes off the building as he spoke, scrutinizing it the same way you would an unfamiliar meal. Looking it up and down and _staring_ as if it would suddenly change any given moment. Reveal some hidden secret.

"Didn't you...?" He looked down at Reno, sat back on his haunches, arms resting lightly on his knees, cigarette burning away in his right hand as if he never really had any real intention of actually smoking it. He'd never been able to sit like that, not with the ease and comfort that Reno always seemed to display. He'd said once that it was just his natural grace showing through, but Rude had seen him in a fight and, for all he was agile and quick and deceptively strong, he had about as much grace as a grasslands chocobo. It was a wonder he managed to stay upright sometimes.

"Nah, they didn't want me." He lifted his gaze from the building up to Rude to make sure he was paying attention. "Asked me a bunch of questions about you, actually. So I told 'em what an asshole you are." His lips curled up into a wry smile. He'd been nothing if not honest when they questioned him, Rude wasn't the kind of guy who belonged in the slums, scavenging and fighting to survive for the rest of forever. Not that being collared by Shin-Ra was so much better, but it was _out._ It was something.

"You're gonna see the sky, man... See the sky and feel the wind and- fuck, _real weather_, y'know? Not even the polluted shit we get when we sneak up on the plate." He looked up at the dark clouds and sky that had long since become a staple of Midgar with a heavy sigh, "hear it's beautiful out on the western continent... I'd ask you to tell me about it when you get out there, but..." He trailed off into a soft chuckle.

He half wondered how Rude was gonna go. If it had been him, it'd be easy. Wrong place, wrong time, ended up in the middle of some gang fight. It'd be easy enough to believe, he had terrible luck. He remembered Rude joking with him that they had materia for that after he'd accidentally pissed off one of Corneo's guys and they'd had to run through two sectors to lose him.

It'd be more difficult for Rude. He was the only person Reno knew who managed to avoid trouble purely by _existing_.

He took a long drag on his cigarette, thinking. He'd have to pretend to be surprised when Rude was gone. Spend the rest of his life keeping up this façade of being devastated that his friend was gone- dead. All the while never quite being _entirely_ sure if he was still alive or not.

... After next week, Rude could snuffed out of existence at any given moment, and Reno would never know.

"Oi, aibou." He didn't look up this time, just stared down at the smoke still burning between his fingers, illuminating his hand in the dark. He didn't need to look, he could hear the surprise. The last time he'd called Rude that, someone had just died and Reno was scared of losing someone else important, but it wasn't _losing them_ if you let them go, right? He gestured vaguely to the building with a sigh, "don't forget about us little people when you're up there, 'kay?"

"Reno..."

"And if you have a son, name him after me. I'm too awesome for my name to name to get lost down in the slums."

"_Reno._"

"Yeah?"

"Stop it."

He laughed softly and pulled himself up, taking a moment to stretch and pull himself together a bit before turning on his heels to go back, flicking his finished smoke away. The only reminder that they'd ever been there. "We'd better go before the guards spot us, eh?" He was already walking, of course, and he knew Rude was just behind him without having to check.

It was going to be strange, living without that sense of security from now on. There weren't many trustworthy people in Midgar. They tended to have a fairly short lifespan. He'd have to learn to start looking out for himself again. He chewed a little on his lip as he thought, frowning lightly.

"You're gonna miss my birthday, you know."

What else was there to say?


End file.
